1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to internal combustion engine accessory belt drive systems each having a unitary device performing both the engine starting function and the electrical power generation function, such as a motor/generator sometimes referred to as a Gen-Star. More particularly, it relates to such systems in automotive applications. Specifically, this invention relates to a configuration for belt drive systems each having a motor/generator and each having a damped tensioner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Internal combustion engines commonly use power transmission belt drive systems to tap power from the engine's crankshaft and deliver it to one or more various engine auxiliaries or accessories. In automotive applications, these accessories include power steering pumps, water pumps, air conditioning compressors, fuel pumps, and alternators. Historically, such engines have had the main power takeoff point at the crankshaft protruding from the rear of the engine to which is attached the drive train for driving the wheels to move the automobile. The accessories are driven from a pulley attached to the front of the crankshaft. Each accessory is equipped with a pulley. All of the pulleys are in mechanical communication via one or more power transmission belts trained about them. Some method of tensioning each power transmission belt is provided. The power transmission belt, the pulleys, and devices accomplishing belt tensioning form the accessory belt drive system.
Earlier systems included multiple v-belts. Commonly, each belt was tensioned by manual adjustment and fixing of the position of at least one accessory or idler per belt. These are referred to as locked-center belt drives, because there is no provision for automatic movement of any of the pulleys to accommodate varying condition of the belt or of the drive as a whole. If the belt should stretch or otherwise lengthen, the tension upon the belt would lessen. Further, for proper operation of the belt drive system, the tension of the belt must be set high enough to accommodate the worst case condition. Such worst case conditions can be the result of extremes of temperature, engine operation, or accessory operation.
There has been interest in making the volume, of the engine compartments of automobiles, smaller. To accommodate the smaller compartments, various aspects of the engines have become smaller, including the accessory belt drive systems. This has been accomplished, at least in part, by reducing the number of belts employed. As each belt is removed, and the number of layers extending from the front of the engine is thereby removed, the total distance the belt drive system extends from the front of the engine is reduced. Ultimately, this has resulted in the use of a single serpentine belt for many applications. A serpentine belt is so named because of the way it snakes around the various pulleys in a series of bends, both forward and backward. A v-ribbed or Micro-V (a registered trademark of The Gates Rubber Company) belt is most suited to serpentine applications.
The limitations of the locked-center approach to belt tensioning are exacerbated in serpentine applications. Accordingly, most modern serpentine belt drives include an automatic tensioner whereby the changing conditions of the belt drive system can be better accommodated. In basic form, an automatic tensioner has a framework, which attaches directly or indirectly to the cylinder block of the engine, and a pulley, which presses upon the belt in the plane of rotation of the belt drive system. A moveable member extends between the framework and the pulley and is biased to provide pressure upon the belt, via the pulley. The pressure acts to lengthen the distance about which the belt is trained and thereby causes the belt to be in tension. Various techniques and geometries have been employed to provide the biasing force. Commonly, a resilient member, such as a steel spring acts to force the moveable member in a linear or rotating motion which results in the pulley tending to move in a direction toward a surface of the belt which, in turn, tends to increase tension upon the belt.
A tensioner with only these elements provides a somewhat constant force upon the surface of the belt when the system is in a resting state (i.e., the pulleys are not rotating). Dimensional instability, of the drive system caused by time, temperature, or manufacturing variation is accommodated fairly well through the action of the resilient member, at least to the limits of linearity of the resilient member and geometry of the tensioner. Thus, the tension upon the belt remains relatively constant, when the system is at rest, even though the belt may have stretched or the engine may be hot or cold. However, a tensioner with only these elements may not maintain appropriate tension upon the belt for all operating conditions of the system.
An operating belt drive system typically oscillates due to the influences of torsional vibration or other angular acceleration of the crankshaft or accessories, the influences of unbalanced conditions, or other influences. Torsional vibration of the crankshaft occurs, in part, as a result of the distinct impulses delivered to the crankshaft through the combustion cycles of each cylinder and piston combination. The oscillations lead to vibration of the belt. This, in turn, leads to vibration of the moveable portions of the tensioner. Momentum then builds in those moveable portions modifying the force the pulley exerts upon the belt surface and the tension upon the belt. The changing tension upon the belt can cause unacceptable performance for the belt drive system. In one instance, issues of short-term performance, such as where the belt of the belt drive system slips excessively limiting the system's efficiency or power transmission capability, or is excessively noisy due to slippage or otherwise, can arise. In another instance, the amount of tension necessarily applied to the belt, to have acceptable performance on the short-term, leads to long-term issues such as premature failure of one or more components of the system, including the belt, or one or more accessories.
To accommodate these issues and thus improve the performance of tensioners, damping devices have been included in tensioners. Damped tensioners have included symmetrical damping where movement of the moveable portions of the tensioners are damped approximately equally whether the instantaneous movement is in the direction tending to increase tension upon the belt or in the direction tending to decrease tension upon the belt. Other tensioners have utilized asymmetrical damping. Commonly, such tensioners are damped such that the damping upon the moveable portion is minimal when the tensioner is moving in the belt tensioning direction and maximal when moving in the belt loosening direction.
Certain approaches to asymmetrical damping have been passive in nature. The mere direction of movement of the moveable portions creates the different damping rates. In one approach, a shoe is biased against a race at an angle different from normal to the surface of the race. As a result, the relative movement of the shoe and race in one direction tends to lift the shoe from the race. This reduces the pressure at their interface, reduces the friction that gives rise to the damping, and thereby reduces the damping. The other direction tends to wedge the shoe against the race and increase the damping, as depicted in FIG. 2. In another approach, described in Meckstroth et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,439,420, damping fluid is channeled through different orifices by valves depending upon motion to the moveable portions of the tensioner. When the tensioner moves in the tensioning direction, the fluid passes through a relatively large orifice or channel offering little resistance to the fluid movement and little damping. In the loosening direction, the fluid passes through a relatively small orifice or channel offering greater resistance and greater damping.
Another approach to asymmetrical tensioner damping has been active and can be also be found described in '420 patent. In '420 two active asymmetrical embodiments are discussed. In one, an electric solenoid deploys brake shoes. When the shoes are deployed, movement of the tensioner is damped in both directions. Additionally, a wedge cooperates with the shoes to modify the force with which they are deployed when the tensioner moves. The damping increases when the tensioner moves in the loosening direction and decreases when the tensioner moves in the tensioning direction. In another, a solenoid deploys a piston, which modifies a fluid path and thereby modifies the damping. Another tensioner approach described in the '420 patent, is to utilize a solenoid, similar to the two active asymmetrically damped tensioners, including a locking factor to switch the tensioner between two modes of operations. In one mode the tensioner operates as an automatic tensioner. In the other mode, its moveable portions are locked, causing the tensioner to act in much the same manner as a locked-center tensioner.
The '420 patent is directed toward solving unacceptable belt drive system performance created by inertial forces caused by the rotating masses of accessories and idler pulleys when rapidly decelerated. As described therein, when sudden rotational deceleration is produced at the crankshaft of the engine “the high rotational inertia of the alternator causes it to remain rotating and causes the alternator to pull the tensioner in a direction so as to loosen the belt [of the specific drive configuration depicted]. . . . as a result the drivebelt (sic) slips . . . .”
Traditionally, an electric starter motor is provided to spin the crankshaft of the engine so that combustion may be initiated and the engine will begin to run. The starter motor is located near the rear of the engine and is adapted to intermittently engage the rear portion of the crankshaft through a gear train.
Currently, there is increasing pressure to reduce emissions and increase fuel economy by lowering the weight of the automobile and reducing the number of under-the-hood components. An approach taken toward these goals involves combining the function of the starter motor and the function of the alternator into a single device, a motor/generator or a Gen-Star. Also toward the goal of increasing fuel economy, the Gen-Star promotes the use of a feature called “stop-in-idle”. This feature is where the engine is allowed to die when it would ordinarily idle, then be restarted when the automobile is expected to resume motion. This feature substantially increases the demands placed upon accessory belt drives. In application, the motor/generator is placed in mechanical communication with the crankshaft via the accessory belt drive. The motor/generator and associated accessory belt drive system tends to be placed at the front of the engine. However, placing these systems at other locations, including the rear of the engine is envisioned.
The advent of Gen-Star systems causes the designer, of power transmission belt drive systems, to face substantial new challenges. A significant challenge, among these, has been to develop a tensioning system that results in acceptable performance, by an accessory belt drive that includes this new device, which not only offers substantial load and rotational inertia, but also adds large driving torque into the accessory belt drive. Further, it provides this large driving torque on an intermittent basis.
A tensioning system stated to be an approach for tensioning an accessory belt drive incorporating either a mere starter motor or a motor/generator is disclosed in two Japanese Patents. One was issued under number 3,129,268, on Nov. 17, 2000. The other was issued under number 3,195,287, on Nov. 21, 2000. In those patents, it is disclosed to place an automatic tensioner against the span of the belt which would become the loosest span at the time the motor/generator is in start mode, but for the presence of the tensioner. This span corresponds to the span that receives the belt immediately after the belt passes over the motor/generator pulley, when the belt is moving in its normal operating direction.
The disclosed tensioning system has been identified as less than optimal. It can be improved to obtain a blending of better performance in the short-term and in the long-term, and a reduction in the width of the belt.
Accordingly, there remains the need for a tensioning system that provides, an improved blend of short-term performance, long-term performance, and reduction in the width of the belt that may be used for any given application.